Chapter 23 : Peerless Lightness Skill
Admittedly, the Skill Card—Seven Steps Fist—held special meaning to him.
After all, that had been the foundation to his quick growth after his transmigration.
A martial artist who only had internal force and no martial arts wouldn’t amount to much.
On top of that, Su Jingxing loathed lowlifes who violated women.
That was why Su Jingxing had stepped out and lent a helping hand when Wei Jiajia was almost violated.
He considered this favor as the end to his ties with the Wei Family.
From then on, they should have been nothing but strangers.
That being said, Su Jingxing naturally had no intention of deepening his ties with the Wei Family.
That’s why he decided to reveal himself and clear things up with Wei Jiajia. This would also save her the trouble of more stalking and snooping around.
He believed such matters ought not to be dragged. More importantly, he knew he had to be rational.
How could he live his own life if he had to go around repaying the favors of every corpse he extracted?
Putting all the other examples aside, take a look at the Corpse Puppet Mei Jinju. Su Jingxing had extracted his Martial Arts Practice Card from it.
To repay that favor, wouldn’t he have to find the Corpse-raising Insect that created the corpse puppet?
That would be ridiculous!
Not to mention unrealistic.
To put it bluntly, extracting cards from corpses and unlocking them for rewards was no more than an act of recycling.
If Wei Jiajia was hounding him because she wanted him to repay the favor, then she was clearly expecting too much!
…
“Not… not interested? Wait… This isn’t a joke, you know?” stammered Wei Jiajia. After a brief pause, she anxiously continued. “I’m dead serious.”
“So am I,” replied Su Jingxing coldly. “I did save you, but I was only passing by and merely did it on a whim. I don’t need you to repay the favor, and I would really appreciate it if you can leave me alone from now on.”
He then turned around and made leave.
“Hold on!” cried Wei Jiajia, panicking. “I’m not playing around, I really have a good deal for you.”
Before Su Jingxing could reply, she went on. “You’ve practiced the Wei Family’s Seven Steps Fist, so you should be well aware of its power. In truth, however, our family possesses a martial art that is even more profound—the Eight Steps Rising Dragon. It’s a peerless lightness skill.”
“Well, here’s the deal. You help my family out a couple of times, and the Eight Steps Rising Dragon would be all yours!”
Su Jingxing stopped in his tracks.
Eight Steps Rising Dragon?
It does sound pretty strong.
Moreover, judging from Wei Jiajia’s words, it seemed to be a trade with no strings attached.
At the thought of this, Su Jingxing turned around and looked at the nervous and expectant Wei Jiajia. “Eight Steps Rising Dragon?” he repeated calmly.
“Right, right. The Eight Steps Rising Dragon,” confirmed Wei Jiajia with a quick nod. “Actually, the Seven Steps Fist is also called the Seven Steps Long Fist. This fist technique, along with the Eight Steps Rising Dragon and a long-lost martial art called ‘Nine Steps something’, are the three ultimate techniques of my Wei family.”
“The Nine Steps martial art has already been lost, and the majority of the Seven Steps one has been taught to outsiders. But the Eight Steps martial art is something that only we Wei family members know.”
“And I guarantee you that the Eight Steps Rising Dragon is extremely powerful once mastered.”
Su Jingxing remained silent.
Wei Jiajia waited nervously. At length, he said, “Same time tomorrow. Meet me at the pavilion ahead with the Eight Steps Rising Dragon ready.”
“Deal!” agreed Wei Jiajia promptly, not daring to ask too much.
After getting a response, Su Jingxing looked deeply at Wei Jiajia, then turned around and left without another word.
This time, Wei Jiajia did not stop him. Standing still, she watched as Su Jingxing disappeared into the night.
Only after he was far gone, she took a deep breath and let out a long sigh of relief!
She finally got hold of him!
Even though Su Jingxing’s attitude was cold, her plan to get in contact with him had succeeded.
With the value of the Eight Steps Rising Dragon, Wei Jiajia had no doubts that Su Jingxing would get tempted.
Once Su Jingxing was tempted, she would get to decide the terms of the trade!
This thought gave her confidence and assuaged much of her unease.
The next night.
Wei Jiajia arrived at the pavilion way before the appointed time.
After waiting for nearly an hour, the masked Su Jingxing finally turned up.
“Here’s the original copy of the Eight Steps Rising Dragon,” said Wei Jiajia. Without delay, she handed Su Jingxing an ancient manual wrapped in a beast skin scroll.
“…”
Su Jingxing didn’t take it immediately. Instead, he stared at Wei Jiajia with a strange look and said indifferently, “Aren’t you afraid that I might go back on my word after taking the secret manual? I could kill you right here, or make off with the secret manual, you know.”
“There’s no reason to be afraid,” said Wei Jiajia with a smile. “Firstly, there are no benefits in killing me. On the contrary, it’ll draw the attention of the Dagger Gang and the Public Security Team. There’s no need for me to explain why it would be a bad idea to get on the bad side of the Public Security Team. The Dagger Gang, on the other hand, is a big organization that’s plotting against my family business. My younger brother knows about our meeting tonight, and if I were to die, he would report this incident to the Dagger Gang. I doubt you want a life where both the evil and the righteous side are putting a bounty on your head.”
“Secondly, if you make off with the secret manual, it’s no big loss for me either. I’ll just treat it as paying you back for saving me last time. After all, if you turn me down here, we won’t be able to guard the Eight Steps Rising Dragon anyway. Rather than handing it over to the Dagger Gang, I thought it’s better to let you have it.”
“And thirdly, I trust you.”
After saying what she had to say in one go, Wei Jiajia grinned at Su Jingxing as she waited for his reply.
After hearing this, Su Jingxing looked at Wei Jiajia seriously for the first time.
He had a newfound respect for the young girl standing before him.
Even though it was obvious that Wei Jiajia had left some things unsaid, Su Jingxing could tell that she was bold and intellectual just from the three points she listed.
Or was scheming a better way to put it?
According to Wei Jiajia, the Eight Steps Rising Dragon was a powerful lightness skill.
If she was telling the truth, she could bring this peerless lightness skill to the Black Tiger Gang, the Flying Cloud Sect, or even the government to seek protection.
Yet she chose to give it to Su Jingxing, whom she had only met once!
From this, he could tell that she was a scheming girl.
The reason was simple; government protection for her and her brother wouldn’t last twenty-four-seven. On top of that, she wouldn’t hold her breath for them to help the Wei family flourish and seek vengeance for them.
The Black Tiger Gang and the Flying Cloud Sect were even more practical; once they got their hands on the Eight Steps Rising Dragon, they would almost certainly toss them aside.
Even if, on the off chance, the Black Tiger Gang and the Flying Cloud Sect made good on their promise and helped her keep the coveters of Wei Family’s businesses—like the Dagger Gang—at bay, it wouldn’t last for long.
Once the protection was effectively over, the members of the Dagger Gang would definitely come look for Wei Jiajia and her younger brother again. She wouldn’t put any underhanded methods past them.
They wouldn’t kill the Wei siblings openly, but they had all kinds of underhanded methods to drive them crazy!
Su Jingxing was a different story.
Firstly, as Wei Jiajia had said, he had already saved her once.
There was a foundation of trust between them.
Secondly, Su Jingxing’s performance last time had given Wei Jiajia hope.
So much so that it didn’t matter whether Su Jingxing was a lone wolf or had a powerful backer behind him.
Su Jingxing was her best shot at protecting and developing the Wei Family!
Of course—
This wasn’t a risk-free gamble for Wei Jiajia.
But she showed courage and placed her bet on Su Jingxing.
And as it turned out…
She won!
After a brief silence, Su Jingxing took the Eight Steps Rising Dragon secret manual from her hands and leafed through it.
His pupils constricted immediately.
Wei Jiajia wasn’t lying; this was indeed an exceptional lightness skill!